A
fundamental truth of the Christian faith is that we will not be sinning in
heaven. Sin and final glorification are incompatible. Therefore between the
sinfulness of this life and the glories of heaven we must be made pure. Between
death and glory there is a purification.

Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "All who die in God's
grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of
their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to
achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the
name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely
different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1030-1). The
concept of a purification after death from sin and the consequences of sin is
also stated in the New Testament in passages such as 1 Corinthians 3:11-15,
Matthew 5:25-26, and 12:31-32.

The doctrine of purgatory, or the final purification, has been part of the
true faith since before the time of Christ. The Jews already believed it before
the coming of the Messiah, as revealed in the Old Testament (2 Macc. 12:41-46)
as well as other pre-Christian Jewish works, such as one which records that Adam
will be in mourning "until the day of dispensing punishment in the last
years, when I will turn his sorrow into joy" (The Life of Adam and Eve
46-7). Orthodox Jews to this day believe in the final purification, and for
eleven months after the death of a loved one they pray a prayer called the
Mourner's Qaddish for their loved one's purification. Jews, Catholics, and
Eastern Orthodox have always historically proclaimed the reality of the final
purification. It was not until the Protestant Reformers came in the 1500s that
anyone denied this doctrine. As the following quotes from the early Church
Fathers show, purgatory has been part of the Christian faith from the very
beginning.

Some imagine that the Catholic Church has an elaborate doctrine of purgatory
worked out, but basically there are only three things that are essential
components of the doctrine: (1) that a purification after death exists, (2) that
it involves some kind of pain, and (3) that the purification can be assisted by
the prayers and offerings of the living to God. Other ideas, such that purgatory
is a particular "place" in the afterlife or that it takes time to
accomplish, are speculations rather than doctrines.

The Acts of Paul and Thecla

"And after the exhibition, Tryphaena again received her [Thecla]. For
her daughter Falconilla had died, and said to her in a dream: 'Mother, you shall
have this stranger Thecla in my place, in order that she may pray concerning me,
and that I may be transferred to the place of the righteous'" (Acts of Paul
and Thecla [A.D. 160]).

Abercius

"The citizen of a prominent city, I erected this while I lived, that I
might have a resting place for my body. Abercius is my name, a disciple of the
chaste shepherd who feeds his sheep on the mountains and in the fields, who has
great eyes surveying everywhere, who taught me the faithful writings of life.
Standing by, I, Abercius, ordered this to be inscribed; truly I was in my
seventy-second year. May everyone who is in accord with this and who understands
it pray for Abercius" (Epitaph of Abercius [A.D. 190]).

Perpetua

"[T]hat very night, this was shown to me in a vision: I saw Dinocrates
going out from a gloomy place, where also there were several others, and he was
parched and very thirsty, with a filthy countenance and pallid color, and the
wound on his face which he had when he died. This Dinocrates had been my brother
after the flesh, seven years of age, who died miserably with disease . . . For
him I had made my prayer, and between him and me there was a large interval, so
that neither of us could approach to the other. . . . and [I] knew that my
brother was in suffering. But I trusted that my prayer would bring help to his
suffering; and I prayed for him every day until we passed over into the prison
of the camp, for we were to fight in the camp-show. Then . . . I made my prayer
for my brother day and night, groaning and weeping that he might be granted to
me. Then, on the day on which we remained in fetters, this was shown to me. I
saw that that place which I had formerly observed to be in gloom was now bright;
and Dinocrates, with a clean body well clad, was finding refreshment. . . .
[And] he went away from the water to play joyously, after the manner of
children, and I awoke. Then I understood that he was translated from the place
of punishment" (The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity 2:3-4 [A.D. 202]).

Tertullian

"[T]hat allegory of the Lord [Matt. 5:25-26] . . . is extremely clear
and simple in its meaning . . . [beware lest as] a transgressor of your
agreement, before God the Judge . . . and lest this Judge deliver you over to
the angel who is to execute the sentence, and he commit you to the prison of
hell, out of which there will be no dismissal until the smallest even of your
delinquencies be paid off in the period before the resurrection. What can be a
more fitting sense than this? What a truer interpretation?" (The Soul 35
[A.D. 210]).

Tertullian

"We offer sacrifices for the dead on their birthday anniversaries"
(The Crown 3:3 [A.D. 211]).

Tertullian

"A woman, after the death of her husband ... prays for his soul and asks
that he may, while waiting, find rest; and that he may share in the first
resurrection. And each year, on the anniversary of his death, she offers the
sacrifice" (Monogamy 10:1-2 [A.D. 216]).

Cyprian of Carthage

"The strength of the truly believing remains unshaken; and with those
who fear and love God with their whole heart, their integrity continues steady
and strong. For to adulterers even a time of repentance is granted by us, and
peace [i.e., reconciliation] is given. Yet virginity is not therefore deficient
in the Church, nor does the glorious design of continence languish through the
sins of others. The Church, crowned with so many virgins, flourishes; and
chastity and modesty preserve the tenor of their glory. Nor is the vigor of
continence broken down because repentance and pardon are facilitated to the
adulterer. It is one thing to stand for pardon, another thing to attain to
glory; it is one thing, when cast into prison, not to go out thence until one
has paid the uttermost farthing; another thing at once to receive the wages of
faith and courage. It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins, to be
cleansed and long purged by fire; another to have purged all sins by suffering.
It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day
of judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord." (Letters 51[55]:20
[A.D. 253]).

Lactantius

"But also, when God will judge the just, it is likewise in fire that he
will try them. At that time, they whose sins are uppermost, either because of
their gravity or their number, will be drawn together by the fire and will be
burned. Those, however, who have been imbued with full justice and maturity of
virtue, will not feel that fire; for they have something of God in them which
will repel and turn back the strength of the flame" (Divine Institutes
7:21:6 [A.D. 307]).

Cyril of Jerusalem

"Then we make mention also of those who have already fallen asleep:
first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that through their
prayers and supplications God would receive our petition; next, we make mention
also of the holy fathers and bishops who have already fallen asleep, and, to put
it simply, of all among us who have already fallen asleep, for we believe that
it will be of very great benefit to the souls of those for whom the petition is
carried up, while this holy and most solemn sacrifice is laid out"
(Catechetical Lectures 23:5:9 [A.D. 350]).

Epiphanius of Salamis

"Useful too is the prayer fashioned on their behalf, even if it does not
force back the whole of guilty charges laid to them. And it is useful also,
because in this world we often stumble either voluntarily or involuntarily, and
thus it is a reminder to do better" (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies
75:8 [A.D. 375]).

Gregory of Nyssa

"If a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that
which is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity
for himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted,
overcoming the irrational by reason. If he have inclined to the irrational
pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things
irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested
in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge
of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to
partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul
by the purifying fire" (Sermon on the Dead [A.D. 382]).

John Chrysostom

"Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their
father's sacrifice [Job 1:5], why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead
bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and
to offer our prayers for them" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 41:5 [A.D. 392]).

John Chrysostom

"Weep for those who die in their wealth and who with all their wealth
prepared no consolation for their own souls, who had the power to wash away
their sins and did not will to do it. Let us weep for them, let us assist them
to the extant of our ability, let us think of some assistance for them, small as
it may be, yet let us somehow assist them. But how, and in what way? By praying
for them and by entreating others to pray for them, by constantly giving alms to
the poor on their behalf. Not in vain was it decreed by the apostles that in the
awesome mysteries remembrance should be made of the departed. They knew that
here there was much gain for them, much benefit. when the entire people stands
with hands uplifted, a priestly assembly, and that awesome sacrificial Victim is
laid out, how, when we are calling upon God, should we not succeed in their
defense? But this is done for those who have departed in the faith, while even
the catechumens are not reckoned as worthy of this consolation, but are deprived
of every means of assistance except one. And what is that? We may give alms to
the poor on their behalf" (Homilies on Philippians 3:9-10 [A.D. 402]).

Augustine

"There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the
names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where
prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead who
are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought
ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]).

Augustine

"But by the prayers of the Holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice,
and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the
dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their
sins would deserve. The whole Church observes this practice which was handed
down by the Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of
the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in
the sacrifice itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on
their behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who
are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf
prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such
prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their
death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them
after death" (ibid., 172:2).

Augustine

"Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some
after death, by 'some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last
and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death
will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment"
(The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]).

Augustine

"The prayer either of the Church herself or of pious individuals is
heard on behalf of certain of the dead, but it is heard for those who, having
been regenerated in Christ, did not for the rest of their life in the body do
such wickedness that they might be judged unworthy of such mercy [as prayer],
nor who yet lived so well that it might be supposed they have no need of such
mercy [as prayer]" (ibid., 21:24:2).

Augustine

"That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible,
and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some
of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the
greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish,
through a certain purgatorial fire" (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity
18:69 [A.D. 421]).

Augustine

"The time which interposes between the death of a man and the final
resurrection holds souls in hidden retreats, accordingly as each is deserving of
rest or of hardship, in view of what it merited when it was living in the flesh.
Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead find relief through the piety of
their friends and relatives who are still alive, when the Sacrifice of the
Mediator [Mass] is offered for them, or when alms are given in the Church. But
these things are of profit to those who, when they were alive, merited that they
might afterward be able to be helped by these things. There is a certain manner
of living, neither so good that there is no need of these helps after death, nor
yet so wicked that these helps are of no avail after death" (ibid.,
29:109).